1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to knee guards and braces and more particularly to such devices for reducing the chance of injury and the extent of damage to the knee area which an athlete may incur during contact sports and to give aid and support in the rehabilitation of a knee or leg injury.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The principal injury to the leg of an athlete incurred in contact sports develops from a blow to or a twist in the knee area. Knee guards and braces with metal ribs of the prior art tend to be heavy, bulky, time-consuming to affix, uncomfortable to wear, and short-lived. Because of these inherent problems, athletes are forced to wear these devices only after an injury to a leg and not before such injury.
The lightweight braces of the prior art, on the other hand, which by and large are tubes of elastic with longitudinal strips of plastic or thin metal for support on both sides of the knee, cannot withstand a strong lateral blow or a twisting of the knee. Rather such lightweight braces were designed as a support in a therapeutic manner. Moreover, efforts to form strong pivotal joints between plastic support strips or ribs were hampered in part because of the impracticality of forming molded plastic parts with chosen tolerances.
In my patent identified above, there has been disclosed a lightweight, but unusually strong knee guard and brace made entirely of a plastic material. This device comprises four support members; each of the two support members adapted to fit on the outside of a wearer's leg has a rib, flanges, and straps which comprise a single, unitary piece formed of plastic. Similarly, each of the two support members adapted to fit on the inside of a wearer's leg has a rib and flanges which comprise a single, unitary piece formed of plastic. A recess in the flanged portion of each rib is provided to reduce the overall weight of the knee guard and brace. In order to reduce the likelihood of the collapse of the pivotal joint under the force of a lateral blow or from the stress of torsional twisting, portions of the rib at the side of the joint are structurally strengthened. In the patent identified above, the applicant disclosed a curvature in each rib at the side of the pivotal joint away from the surface of a wearer's leg, the curved ribs forming an arch over the knee joint when they are pivotally interconnected.